Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A conventional battery pack is detachably attached and supplies power to a mechanism, such as a vehicle or a computing device. The conventional battery pack typically includes a chargeable and dischargeable battery, a protection circuit for protecting the battery, and a management circuit portion for posting a state of the battery to the mechanism.
Typically, the protection circuit includes a current detecting circuit for detecting an overcurrent or an undercurrent, a charge detecting circuit for detecting a charge level of the battery, an overcurrent/undercurrent and undervoltage/overcharge protection circuit for protecting the battery from undesirable current and charge conditions, and a temperature detecting circuit for detecting a temperature in the battery pack. However, the current and charge detecting circuit as well as the management circuit portion are only configured to operate during operation of the corresponding mechanism.
Therefore, there exists a need for a battery management unit that is configured to monitor a battery assembly during non-operating events of a mechanism that draws energy from the battery assembly.